Landmine! This episode of Landmine Radio is sponsored by Guido's Pizza. Located on International Airport Road in Anchorage, Guido's has been serving the best pizza, pasta, sandwiches and more since 1984. Guido's is open daily for dine-in service from 11 a.m. to midnight and they do takeout and delivery until 2 a.m.
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Okay, back here in studio with Anchorage Mayor Suzanne LaFrance. How you doing, Mayor? Doing good, Jeff. How are you? Pretty good. I'm back from Juneau for a few... Tomorrow's the Anchorage election. Six assembly seats, two school board seats, and some bonds. We're doing a little... election show at their, at our studio downstairs. So I go back to Juneau on Wednesday. Great.
Welcome back. You were down there one time, right? A few months ago? I was, yes. Down in February. Your predecessor was down there a lot trying to get port money a couple years ago. Yeah. That was for the Anchorage Port. Well, I want to kind of talk about a lot of things, but it's been about a year since you got elected in the first round. Nine months. There was a runoff in May. Oh, right.
Since the election. Yeah. About nine months since I took office. Yeah. Since you took over in July. So. Yeah. I guess what's. You were in the assembly for two terms. You were chair. But now you're mayor. It's a little different. What's been the. I mean, it's a full-time job, right? It's kind of... Probably a lot different. What's been your experience so far? Yeah, definitely different jobs. And on the assembly, the focus is on the budget and policy and direction and code changes.
Whereas being mayor, being the administrator and running the municipality, right, is the job. And so it's an honor to be in the seat. And we have focused on building a strong foundation. building a team to tackle some of our big issues that we face here and also to really lean into the opportunities we have. So I'm excited about being in the role and feel good about
the progress that we're making. You were taking some steps to buy some new equipment for the snow. Were you worried about, because we had two snow years where it was record snow. And then this year it's been almost no snow, which frankly I'm excited about because I'm on my condo board and we had to expend large amounts of money on snow, basically hauling snow. We ran out of storage space. And then we also had...
accumulations on the roofs that created some ice damming, some leaking. So we had, over that two-year period, we had expended a lot of resources. So we had actually budgeted this year in our condo board or association. for more money towards snow mitigation, hauling, and maybe removing from the roofs. But we've lucked out. So I feel like maybe you're feeling similar. We haven't really had the...
Big snow falls we had the last two years. You know, I like winter sports, and the lack of snow has definitely been a bummer for some people and a mixed bag for others. Definitely. some savings from not doing some of the snow removal that has had to be done in the past. We came into this assuming we're going to have another big snow year and we need...
to do everything we can to be prepared. That's what I was wanting. I mean, you probably assumed it was going to be one of those, like the last two years. And, you know, we saw just huge closure school closures and I guess remote, quote unquote, remote learning, but that doesn't really.
work as well and then you had the businesses impacted and people not being able to get you know get out of their driveways or their their their blocks um but but this equipment i guess a positive silver lining is it takes 12 to 18 months to buy some of this stuff. It's not like there's a car dealership where you can go buy a grater. It's longer lead time. Aren't you guys doing a naming contest? Yeah. Just close that. That's not going to end well.
You don't think so? Whenever they do those anywhere, it always, some goofy, funny, it always happens. That's okay to have a little fun, right? But we definitely... Sometimes they're obscene, too. One place, I forget what it was, they didn't have any rules on it. I forget the name, but they were like, yeah, we're going to do it again. Okay, well, we have some rules on ours. I saw there was some.
No, no obscene names, but we definitely came in expecting a big snow year. And that first snow that we had in October was a record snowfall. And then it was followed by another snowfall, if you recall. And so we assumed this is going to keep going. And then it didn't. But we still continued with the preparations and we were ready for it. And also working closely with the school district because we want to see fewer.
school closures related to weather. And I know maybe that's not what some of the students want to hear, but I know for parents and business people, having those school closures is a real impact to our economy. Well, I just, yeah, I said this multiple times that, you know, part of it's equipment, I think, but then wages. In the airport, you know, during the last big snow years, they raised wages 30%.
That's state. But they knew they had to hold on to these plow drivers and these workers because the airport can't. I mean, think of what the impact of one day of. The airport. I mean, it's the millions probably. Yeah, you can't have that. Yeah. And so we did include a wage increase for our operators because, yeah, you're right. We've got to be competitive.
with others who are hiring operators. And that's been an issue for the municipality is not having competitive wages. So that's one area that we've been addressing. How worried are you about the summer and fire? I mean, I had John Glover on here a few weeks ago, and we've seen a lot of these fires of this weekend. There was one on Spinar. There was actually one by my house.
On Campbell Creek. And then one of these camps, somebody sent me a video, my neighbor. And, you know, it's just been low snow. It's dry. Remember in 2019, there was all those, you know, really hot weather and there was that big fire in Elmore. How worried are you about fire season? I'm very concerned. As we've just been talking about, we had a really dry winter. And so...
The wildland fire season has started early this year. And so this is something that is a really high priority to us because it's also, I think, top of mind to folks, the big fires we've seen in Hawaii. You know, in California, we've got so much beetle kill fuel, too, and people are real concerned about that. That's one of the reasons why we have made the...
Woodlots free of use and the municipal woodlot out in Eagle River is open and free for people to drop off that organic debris and anything less than. six feet long, those branches and some of the stuff from our winter storms with the wind that we've had. The central woodlot near the central transfer station will be free starting May 1st. And we really want to encourage people to, you know, get rid of that organic debris in their yards.
Only take leaves if they're connected to branches. So we're talking about, you know, branches and limbs and brush. But creating that defensible space around someone's home is... you know, the best thing we can do to protect against fire danger and from that, you know, spreading up to neighborhoods as well. How much of it, my friend Cale, I don't know if you saw it, Cale Green did a video. Yeah, I did. There's like hundreds of thousands estimated.
dead spruce trees from Spruce Park Beetle. But there's like city land. There's a lot of that. But then there's state land, like in the park. And then there's some federal land. And then there's private property.
And, you know, I mean, the city lands easier for you to probably deal with, but it's also money to cut some of these trees down. But then there's a state and federal issue. And then there's the private property. You don't want to tell people to do something. But that's kind of where I get a little bit.
conflicted on my libertarian leaning. I don't want my neighbor to start a fire and then have trees everywhere and then it impacts the other people. So it's pretty complicated. It seems like money is a big factor. I just had some, I told you before we started in Big Lake, my friend and I bought some property. Even paying a guy with a bulldozer and an excavator to clear like an acre is not cheap.
Right. So we're talking about, I don't know, thousands of acres of area with dead trees. Yeah, we're looking at all that right now. You know, it's top of mind. We want to make sure we've got the resources we need allocated. you know, to clear that debris, to make sure we've got fire breaks, to make sure, too, that we're coordinating, like you said, with the other agencies involved. And, you know...
to make sure that we've got fire breaks. And so all that is, you know, you already talked, you mentioned you talked with John. Yeah. Yeah. And so he's focused on that. The AFD chief, you know, is focused on what kinds of preparations do we need to make looking at everything from like. Egress, you know, how are people going to get in and out, especially like on areas in the Chugach? That's the worrisome part is parts of the hillside and Eagle River. I mean, there's, you know, a lot of that area.
Stuck one road in. Right. Yeah. And for those folks, you know, I met with them a few months back and their egress plan is to go up. Well, if it can't go down, yeah. Right. And to be rescued. And so we do have a lot of places in the municipality where it's one way in and one way out. And so that's part of our our long term plan for improving public safety is to make sure we've got those life safety access routes and identifying to where AFD can't pass through because it's, you know.
Too narrow. So for many years before you, before Mayor Bronson, I mean, really, I think it kind of started with that Martin v. Boise, that decision in the Ninth Circuit about, you know. patrolling or baiting camps and you have to have so many beds and that create a lot of problems in western cities to deal with so i think it kind of proliferated and then there was this grants pass decision last june um overturning that
So the homelessness, it's a big issue. We've had increasing proliferation of these camps and some are more permanent and we see structures and generators and there's been some fires. I know this is something you, one of your biggest things you're dealing with.
What can the city do to really try to reduce this? I mean, there's, like I said, more permanent structures. I mean, I've seen two-story structures that have been built. Actually, pretty crafty people. But you see, you know, wood stoves inside. permanent structures and generators and just we've seen some fires in the last few weeks growing. What are your thoughts about, you know, trying to fix some of this? Well, homelessness is definitely top of mind to Anchorage residents.
That's the number one issue that I hear about that people are concerned about. Now that we're into fire season, you know, that comes up a lot, too. But we also know that. Homelessness is a nationwide issue and some of these camps, you know, have been years in the making. It's also the reason why when we came in.
Day one, we were focused on addressing homelessness. And I've got two people in my office who are dedicated to this effort. And we are very serious about ensuring that we have more shelter. that there are places for people to go, right? And they can connect to treatment and to housing. We need fewer people sleeping outside. At the same time, we're committed to using abatement as a public safety tool. And we have abated 20 camps, removed a lot of debris from those areas.
And unfortunately, what we see in many of those cases is when people don't have a place to go, when there are efforts made, you know, to get them into. systems or places with support is that we see the camp just rebuild a block away or, you know, just down the street. Well, I think it happened with Tudor and my Home Depot.
That was there for months. And, you know, that was kind of before you. And then you took over. It was still kind of a problem. And then they finally got – there was a shooting. I think somebody died. And then they kind of – a lot of them just moved over by Moose's Tooth. Not all of them, but a bunch of those.
RVs and cars that were over there. I guess for me, it's like a philosophical. I mean, I'm one who thinks we should help people who want help, whether it's housing or treatment or job. And I think we should offer those things and probably do better at that.
It's just the people, there's people that I've talked to that I've gone out in a lot of these camps for many years and they're pretty open about it. They just like being, they just like, they don't want to be part of the society. And they kind of choose to, you know, maybe they're mentally ill or they're doing drugs or they're, they've kind of just given up on.
Being, you know, living in society. But that seems to me to be the crux of the problem is the people who just don't want help, don't want treatment, want to be outside. Well, you know, definitely I hear from people and I believe this too. We need to have a balance between compassion and accountability. And on the one hand, there are a number of people, you know, who do need help. You know, when we stood up. 200 beds of non-congregate shelter, hotel rooms.
over half of those were filled by people who had three or more disabling conditions. I mean, we're talking about people in wheelchairs, amputees, people with cancer, you know, in walkers. Those folks need supports and help and medical care. And we need to ensure that we're providing options to people because it's... Ultimately, you know, we don't want people sleeping outside in parks and trails. And so we are working towards making sure that, you know, there are choices for people.
And at the end of the day, if people don't take those choices, then they'll be trespassed. And we are doing that already. Like when we abate an area and the no camping signs. If people go back there, then the police will trespass them. And so, again, we want to make sure that we are providing options that help people get out of homelessness.
If ultimately they don't take those options, then there's the accountability piece. Yeah, I call it the carrot and the stick. You know, you have to have to to approach. And that's what happened in grants past. They passed that. law, the city in Oregon that said, you know, they were going to give, I think it was a warning and then a fine and then ultimately, you know, trespassed, arrested. And that was what kind of spawned the challenge to the Ninth Circuit decision out of.
Idaho. So I guess the next thing I want to ask is about housing. You have this 10,000 homes by 20, what is it? 10,000 homes in 10 years. 10 years, yeah. I just did assembly debates. There's an election tomorrow, and there's six assembly seats up, and I asked everybody about this. I think last year we did 250, so it's a pretty bold plan. How do we get there without...
you know, really making the zoning and the codes and all these building office easier, because that seems to be the thing I hear. The hardest part is, and when someone tries to change them in the assembly, you know, like Kevin Cross, I think resigned over that because he tried to...
do a zoning change and how do we get how do we streamline all the processes in order to allow the builders to build all these homes which is great we need homes you know the price of a house in anchorage i think it's half a million dollars the average price now yeah and you know 10,000 homes in 10 years, it's ambitious. And that's what we need right now. Because as you noted, we are not building many units.
And we have aging housing stock, too, that is coming off the market. And so we're looking at a number of different approaches. And I appreciate the work that the Assembly is engaged with, too. They've got a housing plan. And so it's a combination of making code changes, right? Some of those are zoning changes and making it.
generally easier to build. We've got an ordinance. It's co-sponsored with several assembly members that is focused on multifamily housing and offering a tax abatement because it's... It's for 15 years is the base and then up to 25 years because that. of the industry is really upside down. It's super hard to make those projects pencil out. And so by offering that tax abatement incentive, that's something that the municipality can bring to the table.
Have you dealt with, probably in the Assembly you dealt with this, but we have this big guy called the NIMBY problem. And it's actually, we're seeing that kind of in the District 1 race with Daniel George and Assemblymember Daniel Voland. Daniel George, who's kind of worked for Dunleavy, he's like a Trump guy, he's a Bronson guy. He's getting supported by people like Mark Butler and John Weddleton and Diane Holmes, who I put in the NIMBY crowd.
who are not Republicans, who are not conservatives. But now they're supporting Daniel George because they're mad that Daniel Volant has tried to streamline zoning and tried to make housing, building easier. So, and I see that in Holton Hills. That was a big NIMBY.
problem down there with those people that were basically just lying to the community councils about the scope of the project. Even now there's not really a housing thing, but there's this guy Haxby and the other guy for the Fish Creek Trail extension.
they're just really mad that they don't want to trail by their even though it's not even their it's an easement you know it's not their property so i mean that seems to me to be the biggest impediment to the housing is just these people that are very loud and they show up to the meetings and they go to the community councils and they go to the assembly meetings and they just tend to be very effective at stopping progress.
Well, people really care about land use issues. You know, I was on the assembly for two terms and represented South Anchorage and the hillside district plan was a really big deal, right? Preserving the neighborhood character. I mean, people love their neighborhoods. And at the same time, you know, we have to be really honest with ourselves. Like we need to build a lot more housing.
That means looking at areas where we can have greater density. It means doing some things differently. And when we're talking about change, I believe very strongly that we've got to have good... We've got to keep people informed about the changes and have really clear entry points into the discussion and into that debate. And so I agree.
You know, nothing brings people out at a community council meeting or an assembly meeting like land use issues because we all really care a lot about where we live. And right now we've we've we've. got to be serious about building more housing. And we see this nationwide in a lot of places where people who have bought a house 20 or 30 or 40 years ago, the property went way up in value and they want to...
maintain that at the expense of younger people who can't afford to buy because the price of housing is gone. I don't know if you watched... Bill Maher every week or he has a good show on HBO. But last week, Ezra Klein was on there and they were talking about this issue. And, you know, people are leaving California and Illinois and New York. And a lot of it's because of housing.
They're going to Texas and Florida and Tennessee. And I was going to say more on a local level. People are kind of voting with their feet. Some people are going to the valley where the price of a house is $150,000 cheaper, average price.
And the Valley, they build, you know, they build houses. They build, I think half the houses last year were built in the Mat-Su. So, I mean, we have like a direct competitor in some cases that we have to, you know, do better on. Otherwise, people are going to go out there.
Yeah, I grew up in the Valley, and I can understand the pull that the Valley has. Your brother was on the Palmer. Wasn't he on the Palmer City Council? Palmer City Council. Yeah, he moved, though, right? Yeah, he did. Pete. That's right. My friend Sabrina Combs knows him. Oh, yeah. Yeah, yeah. I know Sabrina. Did he move to Europe or something?
Yeah. Lucky him. I want to go to Europe. Yeah. But, you know, we see people going out there. I mean, I have a lot of friends who have told me I'm moving out to the valley. Just because they can get a bigger house or more land. Even when I was doing my...
property that they're in big lake i put in a driveway permit and application i was kind of like oh my gosh how long is this going to take you know because i know a friend tried to do that a couple years ago in anchorage and there was some title 21 and there was
talking about upgrading the road for all this money and he had to fight it for like a long time. But out there, I got a call back in like eight days and the guy was like, yeah, I'm at your property. It's all good. You know, you're approved. Yeah, no, those are... Those are important issues and things that we're looking at and working with developers, working with builders. We've got to find ways to make it easier to build, to cut some of the red tape.
hear that feedback of the difference in time that it takes here in Anchorage. At the same time, too, we've got to make sure that the structures are safe, right? So we've got to keep some of that regulation. But I know that there are things that we can do to make it easier and to have a more... to really emphasize our customer service approach and problem-solving approach, too, when it comes to getting permits through. And I appreciate the work that Muni employees do in this area.
the conversations we're having about, yeah, how can we make this faster without sacrificing, sacrificing issues of safety? I think like, you know, what we saw. with pausing the design standards recently is a good example of, okay, we're not sacrificing anything with safety. Right. These are more aesthetic or, you know, different kinds of requirements. And so we've got to look at doing some of those things to encode and then.
We are looking at software, right, when it comes to permitting to make things faster and easier to use. So we are going to be rolling out. some changes here and are very, very serious about this 10,000 homes in 10 years. Oh, we need homes. And, you know, I've said for a long time, we should be the, we're such an attract, attraction to.
Remote workers, tech workers, finance, people who want to go outside. But, you know, to move somewhere, you have to be able to find a place. Even the rent. I mean, the rental market here is really tight. Yeah. I don't know if you weighed in on this.
uh forgive me but there was a sales tax discussion for a while in the assembly and it seems to have kind of been tabled for now but um where are you on this idea of a sales tax i mean i i can see both sides of it but ultimately i think we have all these tourists that come here in the Plus these people from the valley and other parts of Alaska.
It's almost kind of a joke. You know, they say, oh, it's great. Everybody else has a sales tax. Yeah. In Alaska, almost every other community. That's true. Yeah. And as I've been mayor, a lot of people have come up and asked me like, how come Anchorage doesn't have a sales tax? How come you guys don't? And, you know, as you know. Voters have voted that down a few times because implementing a sales tax, right, would require the voters to support that. 60%, right?
Or 50 plus one. Okay. I wasn't sure if it was, I thought some changes were 60 and. Yeah. I mean, it depends on how that proposal is structured, whether it's a simple majority or. or not. But as far as like where I land on it, I think we had a really, you know, great conversation. And it was one that was led by the business community, which is something we haven't seen before.
They started this last year, right? Didn't they come up with the initial proposal or plan? Yeah, with some of the partners and the business community and people who really want to see investment, right? And so I think that's a great conversation for us to have. And I know that it didn't move forward this time around, but I think it's something that we should keep talking about. I mean, to me, I think some offset of property, because we do have high property taxes.
much higher than the national average. And there was some talk about, well, the commercial owners that are out of state. Now there's a bill in the legislature, because right now I guess you can't separate commercial and residential relief on other forms of revenue. But there's a bill that...
Probably is going to pass, I think. So, you know, given a, you know, a third of it away to property tax relief. And then I said, just use the rest for, you know, because we have these snow plowing problems. We have this, you know, homeless. We have all these problems that we need.
Maybe I think some dedicate to projects. I don't know about you. I'm a big Kinnickarm Bridge guy. I heard that. Yeah, unapologetic on that. But, you know, just highway to highway. There's all these things we could be doing. You know, make life and make things easier here. But I just think it's kind of wild how much money we're missing on, especially in the tourism season. Even if it was a seasonal tax from May to September or something, that would be not bad.
Yeah, I would like to see the conversation continue and, you know, to look at an option like you mentioned where maybe a third goes to property tax relief and a third to projects and a third towards. public safety or roads or, you know, whatever we decide we want to focus on or, you know, whether that's general government or something specific. Yeah, I just feel like it has to raise some more revenue because if you just use it to offset and do other things, I mean, it doesn't really...
Help the underlying problem. There's this volcano thing over there. Are you worried about that or what's going on with that? My friend flew over it and sent some pictures. Oh, really? It's cooking. Yeah. It's cooking. That's something that we're preparing for. And the municipality has an emergency management office and the municipal manager is working closely with the teams, the health department.
And, you know, fire department, M&O, public safety, police to make sure that we're prepared, you know, when the volcano goes. And I think they're talking about a quarter of an inch of ash. Yeah, I was reading, I didn't grow up here, but in 92 it went off, and there was quite a bit of that, and it was collecting on those flat roofs, so you have to get it off, it gets heavy, and then if it rains...
Right. You know, and then also the wind. I mean, maybe the wind's blowing the other way and it doesn't affect us. But it seems like very likely if it goes off, we're going to have some impact here. Yeah, I wasn't here in 92. But I was out of state during that time for school. But we're definitely, you know, looking at reports from that time and, you know, making sure that we're prepared that we've got.
goggles and masks and air filters and a plan in place too for employees and, and also, you know, to, to make sure that vulnerable people in our community have assistance as well. I'm not a big mask guy, but if it goes off, I will wear a mask. Yeah. I'm getting me in a 95 mask. I'm doing the full deal. Are you? Yeah. So we don't really know. I've been reading a lot about this, but I mean, it could be tomorrow. It could be in two months. It's really not. There's not really an easy way to tell.
It could not even go off. I mean, it's probably going to go off. Right. Yeah. Just not even. Yeah. I'll be honest. I hope it's not tomorrow because I need to get a little more visqueen. Well, I also have to fly to Juno on Wednesday. Oh, OK. Yeah, because that's going to disrupt air traffic. Right. Are you all ready, though, for the volcano? Have you got your emergency plans? Yeah, a little bit. My neighbor helped me. We got some air conditioner. What are they called?
Filters. Oh, yeah. You put on the outside of the air intake for the heater. So that's one thing. And then there's some masking. You're supposed to mask your, seal your door. Right. Oh, good point. That's what I heard. And then, yeah, the masks.
I'll probably be in Juneau until I come back a little bit, but I'll probably be in Juneau. And you don't have a dog, right? I don't have a dog. Because I've been thinking about that piece. Yeah, pets are, because I mean, that stuff, it's like basically glass. Yeah. You know, it's fine. I was reading. I actually took – I was majoring in geology. Oh, I didn't know that. Until it got really hard. That was like the second year I was like, this is hard. Historical – so I just went to –
I did history and economics instead. It was easier for me. But yeah, it's not good to breathe that stuff in. Are you guys spending a lot of time on this? Or are you just kind of waiting to... No, we're spending time on it. In fact, we ratcheted up our internal preparedness level at the municipality and are ensuring that information gets out to employees because we've got employees who will still be on the job, right, who will need to be.
like our first responders. And, you know, we've got folks who work in offices where depending, you know, when it blows will likely to be. you know moved home to work from home and depending how long and what the other you know the weather conditions are but yeah we've got we're looking at different scenarios and preparing so you're like i said nine months in you're about one year from when you
Won the first round and then you had the runoff and then you took in July 1st. Where do you think we're going here in the next year with all the stuff we just talked about? Yeah, we're going to keep on working towards addressing homelessness, making sure we've got the shelter we need.
that we see fewer people sleeping outside and that we're, you know, connecting folks with supports and treatment. We're going to continue to make sure that, you know, we're moving forward with the port project. I mean, that's. Huge and impactful, not just to Anchorage residents, but to everyone in the state. Right. We're very focused on downtown revitalization as well as.
You know, we talked about the 10,000 homes and housing. So we've got a strong foundation and we're going to keep working at these challenges. And also we've got just so many opportunities here. I mean, we've been talking about, you know.
beyond the beige and I hear from people you know over and over too that you know we live in this great place and we want to feel really good about being here and living here and you know and what can we do to have this sense of community pride so i'm excited about some of the ideas coming out of that with the mayor's art grants and you know just the work that we're all doing together
Yeah, we have. I mean, we have so many opportunities. I moved here in 04, and it was a lot different. You know, it was 20 years ago. Yeah. Over 20 years ago, and it was hard to find a place, but it was doable. We found a little... kind of duplex thing we got my buddy and i moved here and got a pretty good deal on it but it's just uh like i said we should be attracting
Yeah. So many people. And I mean, just, you know, I just feel like last night I was working late and there was a, I heard a noise and there was a guy out there and I was like, it was dark. And I could look out the window and he was a shady character. And I went out, you know, I called 3-1-1, but it wasn't really an emergency. And then.
He had a little fire, like not a big fire, but a little like for probably drugs. And, you know, I went out there and it was kind of a, I don't mind dealing with it. But I mean, for other people, it's really scary to like deal with that kind of situation or go on the trails or in the parks.
You know, even last, last, I took a video of it last summer. There was a, I think it was like June or July. There was a couple of dudes out there just shooting, you know, it was heroin or fentanyl in the middle of the day. So it's just, you know, I, that to me is kind of.
started about, I don't know, eight, 10 years ago and it seems to have gotten worse. Didn't, didn't, you know, maybe I was, maybe not paying attention to those things, but it just didn't seem to be a problem when I first moved here. We've got some challenges for sure. I mean, I believe we can make progress.
And that, you know, so many people here, you know, love our community and want to work together on these tough issues. And I really, truly believe that we can make significant progress. What brought you up here? I'm just curious. Just a friend and I grew up in New Mexico and I went to school at University of New Mexico for the first year. I wanted to go to the Air Force Academy and didn't get in, didn't really have some other options, but just decided to go to. And I actually saw a...
In high school, there was a college fair. And I saw at one of the booths, there was University of Alaska Anchorage. And I said, you know what? I don't know. I didn't even. It was like 03. You know, it was like Alaska's cold and it's.
There's igloos and dogs. I didn't know, you know, before Palin, before all that stuff. So it just kind of stuck with me. It's like, oh, wow, they have a school. And then there's the WUI, the Western undergraduate. You know, you get a break on tuition price if you're from a Western state.
Right. So there was that. And then there was just, I wanted to get away from New Mexico and far away because I grew up there my whole life. It's called land of enchantment, but a lot of people refer to it as land of entrapment. It's kind of the joke there. I hadn't heard that. Yeah. So my buddy was in Boulder. He was in University of Colorado. Yeah, Colorado University in Boulder. And he was paying.
Tons in tuition. I mean, it's like 25 or 30 grand. It's crazy expensive. So I said, I'm going to go to Alaska. Check that out. And we drove August 04. We got our cars and I worked all summer, saved money. We drove up here and we got here. It was actually a really bad fire season. We got to toke. And it was almost claustrophobic. You couldn't really even see that far in front of you because it was so smoky. You could smell it, too. I mean, you just couldn't get rid of the smell.
And then we got here at the end of August. And I remember driving into Anchorage and seeing the sun reflect off the Conoco building. And my first thought was like, wow, there's like a city here. I mean, I really had no idea. I'd never been here. I had no family, no friends. It was before internet really was so big and before Palin and before all the TV shows. Yeah. Yeah. It's a pretty big contrast to like driving through Canada and coming through by...
Yeah, we were 19 and I remember we got into Canada and you can drink in Canada at 19. So that was a bit of a delay in Lethbridge or Calgary. I think Lethbridge might be first. So we had a little delay, but then. We were driving and we got to Canada in two days from New Mexico. That's a fast trip. Two days? Yeah, we drove to Wyoming the first day. Okay, to Canada. And then we spent the next day. Yeah, we got to the border.
So we're like, oh, shit, we're almost there. You know, we're doing great. And then, you know, like our third full day of driving through Canada, like 12-hour days. Yeah. You're thinking like, where are we going? You know, this is far. And then we got to the border, and then it's still another 14 hours or 13 hours.
So it took us like a week to get up here. And yeah, I've been, I left for, I was in Australia for a while and went to Russia for a little bit, but yeah, I've been, I mean, I've been here ever since. Yeah. So that's like 20 years. Yeah. So just over 20 years was August was 20 years. Wow. So you were one of the people who stayed because you were a young person who came up here and.
Yeah, it was hard to find housing. That was even a challenge. I remember we were going through the ADN and stuff we looked at was not cheap and we didn't have a ton of money. And we actually found a little... advertisement on the power pole by Nusagaya downtown just happened to be a random it was like apartment for rent or it was half a duplex and this lady was a teacher in the bush and her friend was
Helping to rent it. And it was $750 a month. Two bedroom. Older house. But it was $750 a month all in. No utilities. So $375 each. Stayed there for almost two years. It wasn't really big, but it was perfect for what we needed. Good price. And, you know, today that's like, you're not getting anything close to that. I mean, I don't even know what rents are. I look online sometimes to kind of compare.
The rents have gotten, you know, pretty, pretty. So I wonder if I would I, if I was 19 now, would I, if I moved here, if I drove here without, without a lot of money, would I be able to, to do that? You know, I don't, I think it'd be a lot harder. Yeah. Oh, I think so, too. And, you know, that's one of the things I think about is making sure this is a place where young people not just want to stay and be, but they can afford to be because it is really expensive to.
get housing. And I know even if you're working a full-time job, a lot of time that's not enough. Yeah. I mean, you gotta be making a lot of money. I look at people with families with, you know, kids. I mean, you have to be making six figures to be, you know, if you're making less than that. I don't know how it's, not just in our state, but, you know, around the country, the cost of things and goods and housing.
All these, you know, even to go to dinner and movie. Four tickets to a movie, that's 80 bucks or something. And then dinner might be another hundred. It's not easy. But it's a great place, and I have a lot of friends with kids that are getting older, and they're going to school, and they want to come back, but some don't. They say, well, I've found somewhere else to live, which is going to happen anyways, but it's just people.
I feel like aren't maybe as willing or excited to come back for the reasons we talked about earlier. Yeah, I think housing is a big... part of it and you know um the university offers such great programs like i recently learned that if you're a university student Outside of the whammy, witchy, wooey, those programs that the university has kind of an exchange program with other universities. And yeah, you can go study for a semester down in Montana or they have an international component.
to it as well. And just some really great opportunities, especially for undergraduates, you know, to have research classes and, you know, a time with professors, which at some... Bigger universities, you know, you don't you don't get that and so, you know, I graduated from UAE I went here and I took economics and history and it was it was classes were never that I mean they were some of the little bigger, but it was you know
Enough where you could talk to the professor and get to know him and ask questions. It wasn't like, like in New Mexico, when I went to UNM for the first year, you'd have these classes with like hundreds of kids. Right. There was, there was lucky if you can talk to the professor for a few minutes.
Okay, so you finished here then? Yeah, I went to UNM for a year. Oh, gotcha. And then I moved up here, and then I was on the seven-year plan. I kind of messed around and got into underground gambling for a while. I quit. school to start dealing these underground poker games in Anchorage. Underground gambling? Yeah. Oh, yeah. There's still plenty around. I mean, they're all every night. I can take you.
I'm not much of a gambler, but I'm intrigued. I didn't know about that. Yeah, so I got into that, and I was dealing poker games, and there was these Greek guys that I met, and they had a game, and then I did that for a while, and then I saved money, and then I went to Europe, and then I... Came back and I didn't have any money and then I was selling cars and eventually went back to school. I said I need to finish school, but I was on the six or seven year plan to get my degree.
Well, I mean, there's some reasons to be optimistic. There's this gas line thing, which I'm very apprehensive about because this has been talked about for a decade. I mean, Parnell 10 years ago had the exact same kind of, we're going to do it. It's done, you know? But if it does happen, you know, with the stuff with Trump and Asia and these international kind of developments, it could be a big thing for the state. I mean, we didn't even talk about energy, the cooking lid.
Sure. The energy, the heat and electricity and power, it's another big concern facing the city. It is, yeah. And we got a little bit of a reprieve this year with a... Pretty warm. It wasn't that cold, yeah. We didn't have those big dips. Whereas last year we had that cold snap where it got really close to, you know, turn down the heat. Which actually...
There's been a lot of studies on this. And when the government tells someone to do something like that, they do the opposite because they think, oh, shit, it's like I'm going to lose my heat. So they turn it up. There's been studies on this. It's like psychological. Okay. Yeah. So that's probably why they were hesitant. I think the military turned down their stuff to 65. But yeah, it's kind of counterintuitive. People get nervous and they crank it up.
To make sure they don't, you know, they want to get their house hot in case there's no gas. We should read about that. It's very interesting kind of psychological. I'll have to look that up. Experiments they've done. Yeah.
Well, I got to go to the dentist. I'm back in town. I got to get my teeth cleaned. Okay. Good luck. We can keep going. We can maybe have you on next time. We can talk about the energy stuff. Yeah, that'd be great. I have some questions for you, too. I'm really intrigued with your story. I'll answer any. I'm open book.
Well, I look forward to more conversations, Jeff. Thanks so much. Anchorage Mayor Suzanne LaFrance, she's rounding off her first year in a few months, and tomorrow's the election, so concluding of the six assembly seats, too. school board seats, and I guess a bunch of bond propositions. So we're doing a show downstairs at our studio tomorrow night. So if you want to stop by, you're welcome to come on. Great. Thank you so much. Thanks, Mary LaFrance. Appreciate you coming on.
Good luck at the dentist. Yeah, thanks, folks. If you have an idea for a podcast or want to do a podcast, get a hold of me and stay tuned for the next one.